F 
129 



.P3TF9 




KkflS 



A HISTORY OF 

[The Tri -States CiTy 



•• 






w 

f^ 



ILLUSTRATED 




Class. 



±1: 



Book. 



Gopi^tl^^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSn^ 




A shady spot 
on the roadway 
leading to 
Eddy farm 
near Port Jervis 



Cun irnagirialion boait. 
Amid ill gay treation. 
Huts like these. 



A crimson touch on the hardwood trees; 

A vagrant's morning wide and blue. 

In early Fall where the wind walks, too; 

A shadowy highway cool and brown. 

Alluring up and enticing down 

From rippled water to dappled swamp. 

The outward eye, the quiet will. 

From purple glory to scarlet pomp; 

And the striding heart from hill to hill ; 

The tempter apple over the lence; 

The cobweb bloom on the yellow quince; 

The palisn asters along the wood, 

A lyric touch of the solitude; 

An open hand, an easy shoe, 

And a hope to make the day go through. — 

Another to sleep with, and a third 

To wake me up at the voice of a bird ; 

The resonant, far-listening morn. 

And the hoarse whisper of the corn; 

The crickets mourning their comrades lost, 

In the night's retreat from the gathering frost; 

Or is it their slogan, plaintive and shrill. 

As they beat on their corselets, vailant still? 

A hunger fit for the kings of the sea. 
And a loaf of bread for Dicken and me; 
A thirst like that o£ the Thirsty Sword. 
And a jug of cider on the board, 
An idle moon, a bubbling spring. 
The sea in the pine-tops murmuring; 

A scrap of gossip at the ferry; 

A comrade neither glum nor merry. 

Asking nothing, revealing naught. 

But minting his words from a fund of thought. 

A keeper of silence eloquent. 

Needy, yet royally well content. 

Of the mettled breed, yet abhorring strife. 

And full of the mellow juice of life; 

A taster of wine, with an eye for a maid. 

Never tioo bold and never afraid. 

Never heart-whole, never heart-sick — - 

These are the things I worship in Dick; 

No fidget and no reformer, just 

A calm observer of ought and must. 

A lover of books, but a reader of man. 

No cynic and no charlatan. 

Who never defers and never demands, 

But smiling, takes the world in his hands, — 

Seeing it good as when God first saw 

And gave it the weight of his will for law. 

And oh. the joy that is never won. 

But follows and follows the journeying sun. 

By marsh and tide, by meadow and stream. 

A will-o'the-wind, a light-o'-dream. 

Delusion afar, delight anear. 

From morrow to morrow, from year to year. 

A Jac^-o'-lantern, a fairy fire. 

A dare, a bliss, and a desire ! 

The racy smell of the forest loam. 

When the stealthy, sad-heart leaves go home: 

O leaves. O leaves, I am one with you. 

Of the mould and the sun. and the wind and the dew! 

The broad ?old waVe of the afternoon: 

The silent flock of the cold new moon: 

The sound of the hollow sea's release 

From stormy tumult to starry peace; 

With only another league to wend. 

And two brown arms at the journey's end : 

These are the joys of the open road — 
For him who travels without a load. 

By Bliss Carman. 



Copyright 1908 
By E. L. parks 



PORT JERVIS 

By JOHN P. FRITTS 

Illustrated by 

WM. H. ALLERTON 

Edited By 

W. H. NEARPASS & JAMES BENNETT 




LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
two eoDles KeceivM 

JUL 20 woa 

CLASSOS. XXc. Ku, 



^T=^rr^ 



P8-| F'J 




Fishing 
on the 
Neversink 



f« 







HE thriving city of Port Jervis is set be- The 
tween green hills on the Delaware River port^Jervis 
at the mouth of the Neversink, which 
winds in and out like a silver thread 
among the foothills of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains. The crest of the Appalachain Range forms a most 
harmonious and pleasing background for the farms of 
Orange County, set like jewels in Nature's crown. 

Port Jervis is ideally located, whether considered from 
a residential or a commercial standpoint. No matter how 
much natural beauty and attractiveness a place may possess 
it does not appeal with much force to an outsider until he 
has definitely settled in his own mind the question of its 
accessibility. There are many localities which boast — and 
justly, too — of rugged and picturesque surroundings and 
prosperous local conditions. But in too many cases they 
are not to be considered by the city worker who has neither 
the time nor the inclination to undertake the long journey 
necessary to reach it. 

Port Jervis is doubly fortunate in this particular. It is 
within easy commuting distance of New York City, and yet 
affords all the advantages of country life. The city is located 
on several lines of railroads, one of them being the main 
trunk line of the Erie, and there are twenty-four trains sched- 
uled in and out of the city every day on this single road. The 
city claims a population of 1 4,000 and its suburban popu- 
lation will swell this number by perhaps 3,000. 




p 
o 

X 

o 
c 
o 

(J5 

3 

C 



* i/i 

.2 3 

> 

iM (A 



a; g ® 

„ „° -6 ^ c g ^ 
H tS > ^ -^ ^ l^ 




REAT historical interest attaches to the 
cit>' and its surroundings. Port Jervis 
was laid out as a village in 1 826. The 
first permanent settlers were decendants 
of the French Huguenots and the Dutch 
who settled the old town of Deerpark. Long before the 
white man came, before the Manhattan Indians sold their 
Island to the crew of the "Half Moon" for twenty-four 
dollars worth of beads and rum, the country around about 
Port Jervis was the abode of fierce aborigines. Even within 
the memory of the early white settlers it was a veritable 
paradise for sportsmen, fish and game of every sort abound- 
ing. The big game, fiercer than its copper-colored hunters, 
was like the latter, slowly driven westward with the march 
of empire. Even to-day, some of the milder denizens of the 
woods remain and make the region one of the most attrac- 
tive near the coast for the hunter and sportsman. 

There are many evidences, which antiquarians may find 
at the present time, of the Indian occupancy of the country. 
Many relics of their life and warfare prove conclusively that 
the Orange County Indians recognized fully the excellent 
strategical location on the Delaware at the mouth of the 
Neversink, and that the present site of Port Jervis in that 
remote period was a great camping ground. 

Slowly, but surely, the trappings of the hunting and camp- 
ing ground made way for the homes of the white men. The 
stern chase and warfare was succeeded by modern schools 
and factories. Long ago the metamorphosis was complete 
and the pale faces came into complete possession of the rich 
territory. But the latter followed the lead of their copper- 
colored predecessors in their choice of a center of population; 
so the Indian's camp ground of yesterday has become the 
prosperous city of Port Jervis to-day. 




B 



« c »i ii 
2 g to 

^ C " V 




5 10 _u: 
2 » .S 



— 3 o _2 Si: 

!> --t- c oj q^ 



E 3 



2.Q 



S2 ^ -£ -c 

C <l. « O IS 



o 

aj • — ' *- 

> ,'- O 

n 1- D. 




-a 



c s •£ 



> 
•c 



IS 



10 







si UST how many years elapsed after the 
occupation of Manhattan Island by the 
Dutch or, more properly, the founding of 
Communipaw, New Jersey, in 1613, 
which was the first European settlement 
in these parts, before the sturdy Hol- 
landers began to spread out among the hills and lakes 
around the upper Delaware, is a matter of some conjecture. 
It was early in the third decade of the Seventeenth Century, 
for by that time all this country had been taken up by the 
lordly 'patroons,' who obtained for a small pittance from the 
Dutch West India Company immense tracts of this country 
land extending along and back from the Hudson River for 
scores of miles. 

"These Old Dutch burghers and the retainers whom they 
brought with them were huge, slow-movmg bodies, great 
'trenchermen' and given to much silence, as they are graphi- 
cally described in Irving's most interesting history. They 
never hurried, having too much avoirdupois, but they were 
unexcelled in a bargain, being for some centuries the great 
tradesmen of Europe. They early took a fancy to this sec- 
tion between the Hudson and the upper Delaware, knowing 
a fine piece of country and being able to drive a sharp bar- 
gain, yet with such skill and ease that they seem to have had 
little trouble with the Indians. 

"The Indians of this section were induced to peaceableness 
by the mild character and gentle ways of the Quakers, who 
began to come up through the Pennsylvania country along 
the Delaware. So that, while New England was being 
harassed by its Pequod massacres and King Philip's war, the 
settlers in these pleasant valleys around and in Port Jervis 
were left to pursue their untroubled, easy-going ways, culti- 
vating the fertile soil and making the first beginnings of what 
have since become the dairy and pastoral mterests of this 
section. 

"About the middle of the Seventeenth Century settlers 
began to come into this section from New England (espe- 
cially from Connecticut), being attracted by the extreme fer- 
tility and good situation of this country to the west of the 
Hudson. After the cession of New York to England by the 
Dutch in 1 664 the estates of the patroons were greatly cur- 
tailed, thus opening up much new land, and the Eastern im- 
migration was considerably increased. Thus, the popula- 
tion of Port Jervis comes from cosmopoKtan sources, the 
fire and push of the Puritan spirit being added to the solid, 
steady virtues of the Dutch." 




the 
rive 


-R 


3 




O 




to 


o Z 




Iley 
lawa 


00 

c 


ro c 




> Q 


_o 




3 
o 






6 -3 Q 







o 
o. 



c 




ATURE has been kind to Port Jervis. 
The beautiful little city, nestling in the 
shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
has every natural advantage to attract the 
homeseeker. Although well within the 
suburban zone of New York City, its surroundings are as 
rugged and picturesque and its home life as essentially 
"countrified" as if the place were beyond the Laurentians, 
in far off Canada. 

But its advantages are not limited to the beautiful surround- 
ings bestowed by Mother Nature — rich and prodigal as they 
are. Its schools and churches are models for other and even 
larger cities to pattern after, while its social advantages and 
high sense of civic pride are unrivalled. 



Nature 
Prodigal 
In Her 
Blessings 




-a 
B 



nS 




c ^ 

° V 

.= ^ 




E 
S 

QUO. 




HE climate is well nigh ideal, from a 
health-giving standpoint. The region has 
an elevation of about 2,000 feet above 
the sea level. The mean annual temper- 
ature for the months of February, May, 
August and October may be taken as fairly representing 
the year, and were as follows: February, 24.3 degrees; 
May, 57.9 degrees; August, 59.7 degrees; October, 48!^ 
degrees. The relative humidity for the same months was 
69.16 degrees, 60.17 degrees, 79.59 degrees, and 
71.50 degrees, respectively. Excessive dust, which is the 
great drawback of the lower levels, is here prevented by the 
proper amount of moisture in the air. At the same time 
there is sufficient elevation to secure a low degree of humidity. 
If there be any truth in the theory that proper environment 
promotes health, then the dweller in Port Jervis must be 
healthy indeed; for, if he be blessed with a clear conscience, 
he may have days and nights of restful, solid enjoyment. 
The pure and bracing air acts as a tonic when the tired sys- 
tem has relaxed from the cares of business, and, after a year's 
residence in Port Jervis, a man's rejuvenation is complete. 
The old settlers of Port Jervis say they were obliged to kill 
a man to start a cemetery. 

Opportunity is afforded for many most delightful drives. 
Every roadway approaching the city runs past fertile and 
well stocked farms. As some one has aptly described it: 
"Tastefully arranged and cultivated farms spread out before 
the view — the brown and white farm houses nestling in the 
valleys among clumps of oaks or elms, with some curving 
brook or stream nearby. Stretching out on every side, even 
to the top of the deep-wooded mountains, lie the broad, 
green fields, where the famous stock of Orange County graze 
at their leisure among the verdant and quiet meadows. 
Glimpses of the Delaware or Neversink in the distance, skirt- 
ing some rugged cliff or precipitous mountain side, and the 
long range of Blue Mountains across the horizon, where, on 
clear days, the higher peaks of the Shawangunk range, and 
even the Highlands can be seen, add to the ever-varying 
charms of the delightful scenery throughout this vicinity." 



A 

Health- 
Giving 
Climate 




o 


>> 


X 






M 


<u 


>■ 


H 




o 


^ 


c ; 


e 






w 

^ 


> 


o 


V 


U Z 










• n 


tJO 






?; 








U 


5- 






' » 


-u 




-l:^ 

C 





ns 





i2 


cu 




tn 






• « 





> 


1m 



a: 1^ z 




Hi 



V 



00 V 

S r, = 

2 >> -§ 

r;3 a> >- O 



CQ 



J3 



c 



S O U, _ 



o 









(S O 






4i .y P -^ 



c 
8 D- 



-.- -5 ■§ <=>- 




ORT JERVIS and vicinity is very popular Popular 
^ With 

with summer vacationists who are attracted Summer 

by the superb scenery and natural advan- Vacation- 
tages of the place. There are famous 
trout streams within easy reach, pure 
spring water lakes are near, there are scores of romantic 
water-falls and wooded glens, while there is not in all the 
country 'round a swamp, a marsh, a breeding place for 
mosquitoes or a lurking spot for malaria. 

The hotels and boarding houses have a wide range of 
prices, with attractions of various degrees, so that every taste 
and every purse can be accommodated. 

The roads about the city ire a constant delight. The 
city authorities have spared no expense to put them in first 
class condition for automobilists and drivers, and it is a well- 
known fact that they are not surpassed even by the famous 
pikes of Westchester County. 

The number of summer visitors has grown to astonishing 
proportions of late years. The delights of mountain and 
stream with the quiet leisure possible at all times, the city 
newspapers available each morning and evening and finally, 
accessibility to New York City, are powerful magnets to at- 
tract summer visitors. 




^ 2 



*j o 



(8 

■ E 
-g ^ 



HE number and variety of commercial Port Jervis 
enterprises which flourish in Port Jervis is _ 
astonishing to one who has not taken into Center 
account the city's fine geographical loca- 
tion and its magnificent resources. Even 
if it did not possess unusual railroad facilities, which bring 
it into close touch with New York and other large cities. 
Port Jervis would flourish on its own account. 

It is located in the very heart of one, of the most famous 
agricultural and stock-raising sections of the world. For 
many years the fame of Orange County has grown and 
spread to all quarters until to-day it stands almost without 
rival in the excellence of its agricultural products and the 
high breeding and commercial value of its live stock. 

On such solid foundation of fine natural resources was the 
city's property laid. The artificial aids came later and in 
natural order of growth. The geographical position of Port 
Jervis was in its favor from the very outset. When the great 
trunk line of the Erie Railroad was projected in the early 
forties, and pushed to completion at a somewhat later date. 
Port Jervis was made the terminus of the New York and 
Delaware divisions. This, of course, guaranteed exceptional 
freight facilities for the town. As year has succeeded year, 
the business of this one road at this point has grown to enor- 
mous proportions. 

At the present time the employees pay-roll of the Erie 
Railroad alone amounts in round numbers to $125,000 per 
month. An idea of their extent and general importance may 
be gained from the fine photographs in the pictorial section 
of this portfolio. 




_- CO 

o oo 
.2 o ao 

b BO U 
O i= «) 




j3 -—" -^ 

Si 8 1 

.j; _c ij J) 

U CD S 



h 




A Pike county 
water fall. 
Child's Park. Pa. 



THER rail lines sene to strengthen the 
frieght and passenger facilities of Port 
Jervis. The improvements and construc- 
tion of new lines now well under way 
will cost about twenty-seven millions of 
dollars. In addition a franchise has been granted for a trolley 
and steam line from Port Jervis to Straudsburg. This line will 
be built down the beautiful and picturesque valley of the 
Delaware River, through the famous Delaware Water Gap. 
It will make a direct connecting line to Philadelphia and 
will bring a vast deal of passenger and freight traffic to its 
northern terminus. Port Jervis. 

This road will enter the famous anthracite coal region of 
Pennsylvania and will be of incalculable value to the Port 
Jervis manufacturers and general tradesmen. Its beneficial 
influence will be felt especially in the coal and iron and allied 
interests, as it is bound to open up a large trade thioughout 
the New England section while through competitive rates are 
inevitable. 

This line, too, will afford direct and quick connection with 
the Pennsylvania and with the Philadelphia and Reading 
roads, thus affording new and important trade inlets to ihe 
West and Northwest as well as to the South 

Still another road, the Delaware Valley and Kingston, 
which will be a part of the Erie system, is projected to run 
along the Delaware and Hudson canal. This will give the 
fortunate city of Port Jervis a third line into the anthracite 
coal regions, and is bound to attract many new and important 
manufacturing enterprises to the place. 

The Ontario and Western is now in operation, running 
northeast from Port Jervis through the Neversink Valley. 
This company have large coal fields of their own, and benefit 
Port Jervis greatly. 

All express trains stop at Port Jervis. This gives quick and 
extremely satisfactory passenger service to New York at al' 
times. No stops being made between Port Jervis and New 
York City adds immeasurably to the advantages of Port 
Jervis as a residential city. 




B 

a 

a. 

e 

o 

O , 







a o 6 ■> 

s- :^ en a. 




Hawks Nest Rock, 
a perpendicular cliff 
900 feet high 
from river below. 
About five miles 
north of 
Port Jervis 
on the Delaware 




COINCIDENT with the development of 
ihe various railroads leading into and 
through Port Jervis has been the rapid 
growth of the city's manufacturing indus- 
tries. In these are represented nearly 
every branch of human endeavor. There are iron foundries, 
stove works, factories for making agricultural implements, 
tinware manufacturers, glass cutting and glass blowing works, 
underwear, overall, shirt and glove factories, silk mills, 
factories for the manufacture of boots and shoes, saws, silver- 
ware, furniture, glass, bronze works, hardware and wooden- 
ware, brushes, paper, motors, general railroad supplies, 
carriage stock, hats, cement goods, pipes, besides lumber 
mills, flour mills and breweries. 

Its close proximity to New York and other seaboard cities 
and its fine connection with Western inland cities, gives Port 
Jervis a peculiar advantage as a manufacturing center. In 
brief, its location is ideal and when the transportation lines 
projected or under construction are added to those already 
existing, the city must, in the very nature of things, take its 
place as one of the important manufacturing centers of the 
country. 

In the opinion of realty experts, whose conclusions are en- 
titled to a respectful consideration, property values in Port 
Jervis will take a sharp upward turn within a very short time, 
and in their judgment the present is the psychological time 
for making investments there. 



Rapid 
Grozvth o/ 
City 's 
Industries 



Port Jervis 
Near 
World's 
Markets 




•- 3 -g 

•£ o <o 53 




s 




<u 


<u 


V) 


' ■» 


> 




.w 


< 




c£ 




1 he last of the 
old overshot mills 




Morals 



lO single feature in the civic life of any city ^ Wi'S'/i 

... Standard 

makes for clean living and good citizen- ^^ 

ship so much as the advantages it offers Civic 

for the education of its youth. In this 

respect Port Jervis takes high rank. Its 

progressive citizens, who are always to be found working, 

in season and out of season, for the city's welfare, are 

particularly proud of its schools and its churches. The reader 

may readily understand this feeling of pride by a glance at 

the accompanying pictures. These speak louder than mere 

words for the progressive spirit and high moral tone of the 

community. 

The fine High School building shown was erected in 
1888; the Church street school in 1899. An excellently 
equipped corps of teachers is emp'oyed and the schools' 
curriculum includes the higher branches, which lit the pupil 
for an entrance to college. 

There are also a number of up-to-date public school build- 
ings which are under the supervision of the Board of Educa- 
tion. The greatest possible care is taken in the selection and 
assignment of teachers, and the highest standards are main- 
tained in every department of instruction. 

Besides the public schools there are a number of parish 
schools, two private schools and one Conservatory of Music. 
In all of these schools a uniformly high standard of excellence 
is maintained, and all are fully abreast of the progressive 
spirit of the city and of the times. 

The spiritual side of the city's civic life is represented by 
ten fine church edifices, the pastors or priests in charge being, 
without exception, men who hold broad and liberal views, 
in harmony with that tolerant spirit which makes for the 
upbuilding of a community. 




3 CQ 



qj 



a> 



H O 



o 

a. 




a> 


>^ 




^ 


O 


tfi 


u 




u 


> 


2 


18 


aj 




.^ 


o 


H 


u~> 


a. 




A woodland road 



MONG the more prominent public build- Its 

int^s may be mentioned the fine new _ ... 
■' Public 

Carnegie Building containing the Free Buildings 
Public Librarj' of 20,000 volumes and 
the Free Historical Library of 4,000 rare 
volumes and manuscripts. Public School Library, the Port 
J-rvis Board of Trade, the prospective Y. M. C. A. build- 
ing, St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, the Elks new building in 
process of construction, and two fine hospitals. 

The city supports five progressive newspapers. Two of 
them, the Union and the Gazette, are dailies. Besides these, 
there are a weekly, a semi-weekly and a weekly agricultural 
journal of wide circulation. 

Two large national banking institutions are located at 
Port Jervis. There are also several building and loan asso- 
ciations whose reports show them to be in first-class condi- 
tion. One of these, established in I 868, is the oldest insti- 
tution of its kind in the world. 

There are commodious hotels and theaters, a complete 
electric street car system with thoroughly modern equipment. 
The city also has a splendid fire department with an enviable 
record of saving property. 

The accompanying photographs give a good idea of the 
architectural excellence of the public buildings of Port Jervis. 
In this respect the town compares very favorably with much 
larger cities. 

The residential sections are a delight to the eye. Much 
painstaking care has been taken in the home building by the 
citizens, and the results as a whole are very pleasing. There 
are scores of beautiful private homes where good taste in 
architecture has been combined with pleasing landscape 
effects — the well kept lawn of this or that particular house 
owner being a proper component part of a harmonious whole. 




tu 


^ 


T3 




3 
O 


i1 


"o 


-n 


'2-^ 


4> 


c 


^ 1:; 


e 


3 


■c 


U 


O 


U 0- 




-Fi 






no 


ds of 
road 


■E 




c 










« 10 


r 


u 


E 


>. ■- 


o 


> 


V OJ 


(X 




^ 


_c -c 




<u 


3 


HuJ 


IS 


<0 


^ 




High Falls. 
Dingman's Brook 




MM city government is vested in a Mayor The City 
and Common Council, who are chosen 



tnent 



l)y popular vote. The methods which 
have brought success to the progressive 
merchants have been extended to the 
city's corporate management. The municipal government 
combines the advantages of a Dutch burg with its individual 
responsibility, with the most attractive features of the town 
government system of New England. 

In summing up the natural resources of Orange County, 
where Port Jervis is located, it is proper to mention the fact 
that there are important mineral deposits. A fine vein of red 
marble runs through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Moun- 
tains, and this crops out in several places. This stone is of 
great value and beauty, and is especially suitable for the con- 
struction of buildings and monuments. 

The Shawangunk mountains, to the east of Port Jervis, 
contain large inexhaustible mines of lead ore which are being 
worked. One of the sources of wealth in this region is the 
bluestone industry along the Delaware, of which Port Jervis 
IS the center of supply. 

There are also quite extensive deposits of manganese, iron 
ore and limestone. The iron ore is of the sort which is 
susceptible to conversion into steel by both the Bessemer and 
the Basic processes, and only awaits the further development 
of coal and coke carrying lines to become a source of con- 
siderable wealth to the community. 



ARRANGED AND PRINTED BY 



•HE ABBOTT PRESS, N. Y. 



JUL 20 ^^'' 



X 



'.^^>^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



lilllllliiri n III; 1 1 ill I'l 1 " 

014 208 361 9 • 




-t^^' 



